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The decision post-colonial writers make is not just how to write between languages, but
how to make language be both source and target.
Untranslated words:
The technique of leaving some vernacular words untranslated is a widely used device for
conveying the sense of cultural peculiarity which forces the reader to engage with the
vernacular culture: e.g. He had learnt since then to walk like an ogwumagada
Interlanguage:
This term refers to the linguistic system used by second-language learners, in which
utterances that are not standard in the dominant language should be seen as genuine and
creative rather than mistaken versions of the original. It is the fusion of the linguistic
structures of two languages: e.g. I was a palm-wine drunkard since I was a boy of ten years
of age. I had no other work more than to drink palm-wine in my life. In those days we did
not know other money except COWRIES, so that everything was very cheap, and my father
was the richest man in town.
Syntactic fusions:
They are linguistic adaptations of the rhythms and textures of vernacular speech to standard
orthography.
e.g. Man, I brisk in the galley first thing next down,
brewing lil coffee; fog coil from the sea
like the kettle steaming when I put it down
slow, slow cause I couldnt believe what I see
Code switching and vernacular transcription:
It is the most common method of inserting alterity (otherness), that is, interweaving two or
more dialectical forms, revealing societal complexity, including class and cultural
differences as well as communication between groups. In the Caribbean novel the narrator
reports in Standard English and the dialogues are in the vernacular language: e.g. So this is
the way you use my yard! was her greeting to both young women. Tou bring youdirty
friends into me place
The metonymic gap, the space between languages, is seen through an example in the text.
There is an aboriginal poem, an aboriginal lullaby which maintains most aboriginal words,
rhythm and sounds but becomes understandable because these words are written in roman
script. Though being untranslatable, the sentences make sense and the aboriginal values are
communicated.
By using the various appropriation strategies, writers establish otherness and difference and
at the same time take some measure of political control of discourse.
The postcolonial writer may appropriate the language, but he or she must insert that text
into the western-dominated systems of publishing, distribution and readership for the
strategy to have any effect.